A tent encampment housing between 20 and 35 individuals in the woods between Inova’s emergency room and Sunrise Assisted Living Center in Reston may soon fold.

Fairfax County officials hope to open up a temporary overflow shelter in a government building in the Reston Town Center North area to accommodate the people who’ve been living in the tents.

“No Trespassing” signs are set to go up around the encampment, which is located on county property, in the coming weeks, as the county’s hypothermia shelters close their doors for the 2023-2024 winter season on Sunday (March 31).

The Reston encampment is the largest one in the county, according to Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn. Cornerstones — the nonprofit that runs Reston’s Embry Rucker Community Shelter — and its outreach teams plan to discuss their options with residents as the transition is phased in over the coming weeks.

“It’s really an unmanaged campground,” Alcorn said yesterday (Wednesday) in a call with media. “You know, if you walk through and talk to people, that’s really how its functioning at this point. So, I have concerns about, frankly, the safety of the folks living there now and the personal safety.”

Many details of the overflow shelter, including when it will open and how many people it can fit, remain to be determined, but it’s intended to help wind down activities in the encampment that has occupied the hill for years.

In some cases, neighbors have complained about the encampment, though data on how many police calls have been placed wasn’t immediately available.

According to Alcorn, there have been issues at the Reston Regional Library and reports of break-ins in some of the surrounding communities, but he cautioned that it would be “unfair” to attribute all incidents to the encampment.

Sunrise recently put up a fence around their property, creating a buffer between their property and the encampment.

Alcorn said he asked staff for an “effective and humane” plan for winding down the camp. He emphasized that its future is already in limbo because that property and the rest of Reston Town Center North are slated for major redevelopment. Plans call for a new Embry Rucker shelter and a new library, though an earlier agreement with a private developer fell through.

The encampment first began as a handful of tents but has since grown substantially. Reston Strong, a local nonprofit organization, began offering support to the area, providing food, tents and other supplies.

The organization launched a Neighbors in Tents campaign in 2022 to raise awareness about homelessness in Fairfax County. A temporary tent community was set up in front of the North County Governmental Center (1801 Cameron Glen Drive) as an alternative after the county’s hypothermia and COVID-19 emergency shelters closed for the season.

The organization called for permanent solutions to address homelessness in the county, which saw a 10% increase in people experiencing homelessness from 2022 to 2023. The results of the county’s most recent point-in-time count — an annual survey of the number of people without housing — are expected to be released in May.

Reston Strong says it welcomes the plans for a temporary overflow shelter to assist “our most vulnerable residents,” but it still has “many unaddressed concerns and questions.”

“We have not received answers from the county about when the shelter will be ready or if there is enough capacity for the Hill residents and those already in hypothermia, but we have been told via a letter from Supervisor Alcorn that no trespassing sign will be posted and we are not allowed to set up new tents,” Reston Strong organizer Sarah Selvaraj-Dsouza said. “The Hill will be closed in the near future for the planned land swap with Inova. We are hoping for a timely resolution that meets everyone’s needs.”

Alcorn said the logistics of the overflow shelter are still being ironed out.

News of a plan to clear the encampment comes as the county’s Redevelopment and Housing Authority prepares to implement a $20 million agreement that will provide housing for those in need, specifically individuals with serious mental illnesses.

Starting in May, the county will receive 300 new supportive rental assistance vouchers for residents over three years and three new staff positions to manage the program.

Alcorn says both initiatives are the beginning of important steps to addressing chronic homelessness.

“It’s going to make a big dent in the problem,” he said of the voucher program.

The annual Reston Pride Festival will return to Lake Anne Plaza on June 1 from noon to 6 p.m.

This year’s festival will include live music, performances, and vendors. The organization will also choose an LGBTQ+ nonprofit to highlight positive work being done in the community.

Past beneficiaries include Rainbow Families, the CasaBurmar Foundation and the Pride Liberation Project, a student-led LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

“We are very excited and proud to continue the rich tradition of Pride in Reston while recognizing how fortunate we have been, especially considering how many LGBTQIA+ organizations did not survive the strain of the pandemic,” Reston Pride President Kyle Rohen said.

Rohen said the organization needs volunteers for the day of the festival and year-round.

The organization got its start in 2018 in an effort to make Reston a “truly inclusive” region by providing cultural education and resources about LGBTQIA+ history and culture. 

Reston Pride is sponsored by CORE Foundation, a nonprofit that offers services for the Northern Virginia region.

The nonprofit responsible for historic preservation at Mount Vernon collected a state-level honor last week.

The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association received the first of six 2024 Spirit of Virginia awards from Gov. Glenn Youngkin and First Lady Suzanne Youngkin on Friday (March 15).

“It is fitting that during Women’s History Month we celebrate the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association’s centuries-old commitment to preserving one of our Commonwealth’s most historic homes,” Suzanne Youngkin said in a press release.

The Spirit of Virginia awards recognize people and organizations nominated by the governor’s cabinet secretaries and then selected by the first lady and governor. The criteria, per the first lady’s website, requires that honorees be service-oriented, pioneering, innovative and industrious, reinvigorating, imaginative, and transformative (in other words, have “spirit”).

The MVLA, which has owned the Mount Vernon estate since 1858, is a privately-funded organization that preserves, maintains and restores George Washington’s mansion, along with the surrounding grounds.

“We are honored to be the first recipient of the 2024 Spirit of Virginia Award,” Margaret Hartman Nichols, 23rd regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, said in the press release. “The Association’s legacy of stewardship began with our trailblazing founder, Ann Pamela Cunningham, and has continued for the last 166 years uninterrupted. It is fitting that the home of the man who was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen was rescued by the women who were first in preservation.”

The MVLA isn’t the first local organization to get this recognition from the governor’s mansion.

Last year, Fairfax City’s Cameron’s Coffee & Chocolates (9639 Fairfax Blvd) made the list for its work with young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. One of 2022’s awards went to Vienna’s Jill’s House (9011 Leesburg Pike), a Christian non-profit that offers one-to-two day overnight respite care to kids, teens and young adults with intellectual disabilities.

The Reston-based German Armed Forces Command partnered with Food for Neighbors to help tackle food insecurity among teenagers on Saturday (March 9).

The office, which serves as the German military’s liaison to the U.S. and Canada on issues related to defense technology and weapons, helped sort nearly 3,400 pounds of donations at Herndon Middle School. It also presented a donation of more than $5,500 to Food for Neighbors.

A local nonprofit organization that provides food to middle and high school students, Food for Neighbors plans to use the funds to address teen food insecurity in partnering schools throughout Northern Virginia.

“I feel honored and privileged to present this donation as our contribution to your outstanding and very important cause,” Col. Joerg Dronia, commander of the German Armed Forces Command in the U.S. and Canada, said. “The funds were raised at the 2023 Christmas Market at our HQ here in Reston. The women and men serving there, nominated your charity organization as the prime recipient. I am more than pleased to follow their suggestion to support those in need.”

This is the second year that the German Armed Forces Command worked with Food for Neighbors after the organization participated in a similar sorting event in January 2023.

Dronia said the organization sees itself as an integral part of the local community.

“I have to repeat what I said already last year: Although, we are far away from home, you all make us feel at home here in Reston,” he said at the collection and sorting event.

Food for Neighbors founder and executive director Karen Joseph said the organization currently helps 7,500 students in 47 schools.

“In addition to representing one of our greatest NATO allies, the German Armed Forces Command is an excellent example of what it means to be a good neighbor,” Joseph said. “We are one of many organizations that have benefited from their giving spirit, and we thank them for all that they do to help our most vulnerable community members.”

Nearly 65% of Herndon Middle School’s students qualify for free and reduced-price meals, according to the Virginia Department of Education.

“Our students don’t need fancy shoes. They need food and love. By coming together over food, we create a community,” Herndon Middle School Family Liaison Salazar Laske said.

Overall, the effort sorted and collected more than 26,500 pounds of food and toiletries.

SevaTruck Foundation has been granted permanent use of the Lewinsville Center’s kitchen for its food distribution operations.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a special exception on March 5 that will let the nonprofit continue making and providing free meals out of the senior center in McLean, which also houses adult day care and child care programs.

With the approval, SevaTruck can continue utilizing the kitchen and a designated parking spot on Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It typically has two employees and up to two volunteers preparing meals that are then distributed both on-site and at other locations via a food truck and volunteers’ personal vehicles.

“This has been a great partnership, a great thing for the community, and this is a very easy one [to approve],” Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman said before the board’s vote. “This is good stuff.”

The special exception was requested by Fairfax County Neighborhood and Community Services (NCS), which operates the Lewinsville Center and offered SevaTruck use of the commercial-sized kitchen in 2021 so it could make meals for low-income residents and others in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The county had suspended some zoning requirements to allow temporary uses, such as medical facilities, deemed necessary “to respond to the COVID-19 emergency and its impacts.” However, the local state of emergency for the pandemic ended on March 1, 2022, so operations established during that time now need official approval to continue long-term.

SevaTruck began operating in Fairfax County in 2017, serving over 380,000 meals to date. Getting access to the Lewinsville Center’s kitchen has enabled the nonprofit to “increase its capacity,” NCS North County Region 3 Assistant Division Director Karen De Mijango told the board.

Echoing the sentiments of a coworker who spoke at the Fairfax County Planning Commission’s public hearing on Jan. 24, Braddock Elementary School teacher Joyce Matthews testified that SevaTruck’s assistance has been critical to the school.

Before the pandemic, the nonprofit gave free meals to students who participated in after-school programs, and once COVID-19 shut down in-person classes in March 2020, it provided meals twice a week.

“We could not do the things that we do without SevaTruck,” Matthews said. “…We want to let you know how much of a difference they’ve made, and definitely with the kitchen, it has been much easier. They have become part of our Braddock community.”

Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw confirmed that SevaTruck has done “an amazing job” at Braddock Elementary School and other sites around the county, recalling his experience volunteering to help distribute food out of the back of the truck.

Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik called the collaboration between NCS and SevaTruck a “creative use” of a public facility, while Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay noted that the nonprofit’s community service was recognized with a “Best of Braddock” award in 2022.

“I remember that night well, and they’re doing amazing work that’s really benefitting the entire county, especially our Title I schools,” McKay said.

(Updated at 12:30 p.m.) Cindy’s Legacy — a Reston-based nonprofit organization that helps cancer patients in financial stress — received a lift from a local business last week.

Reston’s Great Clips donated $579 to the nonprofit organization, which was named after its founder’s mother, Cindy Martin, who had been a hairstylist in Reston for more than 30 years. Martin died from brain cancer in 2011.

(Correction: This story initially stated that Martin died in 2021.)

“This event, the vital funds raised, and our ongoing partnership will continue to honor her legacy and help cancer patients in our community,” Cindy’s Legacy founder and president Stacy Brooks said.

The three-day fundraiser also included free haircuts for cancer patients and showcased the business’ hair donation programs.

Cindy’s Legacy has since provided more than $75,000 to at least 400 cancer patients nationwide. Great Clips also offers free haircuts to anyone who wants to donate their hair to Wigs for Kids, an initiative that helps kids and young adults experiencing hair loss.

Clips of Kindness is another program run by Great Clips that provides a free clipper cut to anyone who is losing their hair due to cancer treatment.

The fundraiser for Cindy’s Legacy — titled Shear Love — kicked off on Valentine’s Day and concluded after three days.

Run by franchisee Sean Carroll, Great Clips opened its Reston location at South Lakes Village Center (11130 South Lakes Drive, Suite E) in November 2022. The company was founded in Minneapolis in 1982 and now has over 4,400 salons in the U.S. and Canada.

A Loudoun County nonprofit organization is expanding into Reston with a new food distribution site at Cathy Hudgins Community Center.

Better A Life plans to give out food every Wednesday at noon at the community center, followed by the launch of cooking classes in March. The organization also plans to start a homework club, which includes a free hot dinner for children each week and the mentors that assist them.

For Better A Life president and founder Elizabeth Ford, the expansion into Reston is personal. She grew up in Reston as a “child of hunger,” Ford said.

Her mother, who was a single mom, lost the townhouse where they lived in Southgate Square. After moving several times, Ford says she was permanently kicked out of her home when her mother moved overseas with her new husband. She then lived in a Red Rood Inn in Manassas and eventually became homeless.

“I used to sit at the 7-11 outside of Shadow Wood apartments and bum quarters for my food each day,” Ford said. “There were no resources for kids like me to get free food that any of us kids knew of. They finally opened The Pit over behind the police station…and I lived with my friend in Bowman Towne for most of my days as a young teen. This would give us a place to hang out safely.”

Ford went on to get a bachelor’s degree in information technology. Now in a position to help others, she says she wanted to bring more resources to the community.

Based in Purcellville, Better a Life provides food and educational assistance for kids and families with the goal of breaking the cycle of poverty.

“My programs are selected from experience,” Ford said. “I needed all the above, so my nonprofit BetterALife runs off the three programs (Growth4ALife, Cook4ALife, InspireALife) to help the children learn they can make it; there is hope, and they are loved and never forgotten.”

In addition to supporting 12 schools in Loudoun and Fairfax counties with weekend lunches, shoes, socks, blankets and other necessities, the nonprofit made its Reston introduction with a meals and toy distribution event on Dec. 16. The Reston expansion will officially launch on March 1.

The organization is seeking volunteers, particularly high school juniors and seniors. Applicants can email admin@betteralife.org for more information.

Centreville-based nonprofit Tender Hearts has donated over 100 Nepali-language children’s books to Fairfax County Public Libraries with the aim of connecting local Nepalese families and children to their cultural roots.

Prabha Bhattarai Deuja, founder and president of Tender Hearts, recently delivered the books to the Chantilly branch of Fairfax County Public Libraries, according to a news release.

“The Fairfax County Public Libraries hold a special place in my heart for its dedication to accessibility and equity,” Deuja said in the release. “To be able to contribute to that same mission with our newly added Nepalese culture books brings a sense of pride and gratitude for our community I didn’t know was possible. I am a firm believer that books are just one door to promoting our country and culture.”

The books have been cataloged and are currently available to all Fairfax County residents. More information can be found at fairfaxcounty.gov/library/nepali-world-languages-bags.

Tender Hearts representatives said they hope to see the collection expanded over time. The nonprofit — formally known as PKP Tender Hearts Foundation — aims to preserve and spread awareness about Nepali culture within children in the U.S.

This article was written by FFXnow’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.

A local nonprofit organization wants to tackle homelessness and the lack of affordable housing in Fairfax County with a new project in the Fair Oaks area.

Cornerstones, a Reston-based organization that provides shelter, food and other services to individuals and families in need, is proposing to construct supportive housing on a little over 1 acre of land near the Route 50 and West Ox Road interchange.

The Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority currently owns the two parcels, which would be developed with 34 residential units designed for one-person households.

County staff say a noise impact study would be a defining component in considering a comprehensive plan amendment for the project, which is called “Fair Ridge Residential at West Ox.” Initiated by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 22, 2022, the amendment is needed to allow affordable housing on the site.

Cornerstones has also submitted a rezoning application for the planned three-story building that’s under review.

The proposal was met with mixed feedback from area residents and community organizations at a Jan. 22 community meeting.

Some raised concerns about increased crime and drug use on the site. Others said they were empathetic to the struggles of individuals in need, but the impact to the surrounding community should be carefully considered.

“These people are going to be bringing in crime. How much crime do they bring in?” resident William Clerkin fretted.

Amy Lemiu, a resident of Fair Oak Estates, said neighbors are concerned about the project.

“I heard about it via NextDoor,” she said, asking why neighboring residents were not made aware of the proposal.

But others like Joshua Booth, speaking on behalf of of YIMBYs (Yes In My Backyard) of NOVA, said the project fulfills a major need in the county, which is often not affordable for residents without any complicating circumstances.

“I can’t imagine how it is for people who have difficult personal lives,” he said.

Lynn Strobel, the applicant’s representative and a land use attorney with Walsh Colucci Lubuley & Walsh, emphasized that the development is not intended to serve the purpose of transient housing.

“This is an opportunity for individuals to have stability in a very supportive setting, and I think that they are well-monitored in this setting,” Strobel said.

Cornerstones CEO Kerri Wilson also emphasized that applicants are screened for their credit, criminal background and other factors related to eligibility.

In addition to operating the Embry Rucker Community Shelter in Reston, Cornerstones owns 104 townhomes and condominiums designated for low-income families and individuals in Reston, Herndon and Centreville.

The future residents of Fair Ridge Residential — like those at any other housing development — would be allowed to have alcohol on site if they’re of legal age, according to Wilson. The development will, however, have 24/7 resident services and on-site case management referrals for people with substance use disorders.

She also emphasized that Cornerstones is a community partner that will remain active in the management of the project.

“We’re landlords that want to be there,” Wilson said.

Public hearings on the plan amendment by the Board of Supervisors and planning commission will likely take place in May. If the county approves the project, it would take another roughly two-and-a-half years before residents would be able to move into the new facility.

A food truck that delivers free meals throughout Fairfax County has encountered nothing but support in its bid to stay long-term at the Lewinsville Center in McLean, county staff recently told the Fairfax County Planning Commission.

The commission gave SevaTruck Foundation another endorsement by recommending after a public hearing on Jan. 24 that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approve a special exception amendment so the nonprofit can continue to operate out of the center, which includes a senior center, adult day care and two child care programs.

“It’s an important program,” Dranesville District Planning Commissioner John Ulfelder said. “People think of McLean, they say, ‘Well, people of McLean don’t need this kind of help.’ The fact is there are people in McLean who need it, as well as other areas that can be served by this…It’s an important service that the county provides to help people that really need it.”

The Fairfax County Department of Neighborhood and Community Services (NCS) contracted SevaTruck to make meals for low-income and other vulnerable residents in 2021, according to county planner Zach Fountain. The county board had suspended zoning code provisions preventing temporary uses that could be helpful for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, SevaTruck’s presence in Fairfax County dates back to its arrival in the D.C. area in 2017, when it began providing meals to Title I schools and low-income neighborhoods. With the NCS contract, it got access to the Lewinsville Center’s commercial-sized kitchen, enabling it to expand its capacity and reach, NCS North County Region 3 Assistant Division Director Karen De Mijango said.

Since launching, the nonprofit has served over 380,000 meals in the D.C. area, including more than 85,000 meals in Fairfax County in 2023, according to De Mijango. In addition to providing food at the Lewinsville Center (1613 Great Falls Street), the employee-run food truck and volunteers have visited communities from Herndon to the Route 1 corridor.

There are no plans to further expand the program, but with the county’s emergency status for the pandemic now expired, the nonprofit needs a special exception to keep using the Lewinsville Center’s kitchen, a dining room and a designated parking spot.

SevaTruck operates from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, with two workers and up to two volunteers preparing meals in the kitchen each day.

“I think what we’ve established the last few years with SevaTruck Foundation, it has worked well for us and the senior program and other campus partners,” De Mijango said. “We would like to ensure this resource continues to benefit Fairfax County residents, especially the Title I schools in low-income communities and neighborhoods.” Read More